TheEnigmaticFlea's blog

09/25/06 "Information
Clearing House" -- -- Since September 11th, 2001, "We the People"
have had ample opportunity for self-examination. When we look
around us, "First world" vs. "Third world", if we are honest
with ourselves we must recognize that the democracies comprising
Western Civilization have collectively become the next world
dictator. This dictator is a tyrant unforgiving in its
self-righteousness because it gets its very authority from "We
the People". We have, inadvertently, through our own
irresponsibility and apathy towards participating in our own
government, stepped into the shoes of the oppressor.

From those shoes we can see clearly: There are no "Islamic
terrorists" in the Middle East.

Timothy McVeigh was a terrorist. The IRA were terrorists.
Baader-Meinhoff were terrorists.

These were terrorists because they had the right to free
speech... They had the right to assemble in protest and to form
political parties... They had the right to vote for whom they
pleased... They had the right to run for office themselves to
work for peaceful change. They were terrorists because they
chose violence instead of working for change within the system
available to them.

The Fundamentalist Muslims of the Middle East who are fighting
us now, on the other hand, have never had such rights. Our
American government and the governments that support it, ie.
Western Civilization, have never allowed Muslims any method
other than violent resistance for addressing grievances.

The most coherent historical analogy to current Western
strategies in the Middle East today is the 19th century American
belief in the "Manifest Destiny" of the United States, and its
impact on Native American tribes. As part of American Manifest
Destiny, Native American lands were carved up by force of arms
at the request of merchants, farmers, and ranchers. Native
American tribes were forced onto tiny "reservations"
administered by "Indian Agents". Today this process is viewed by
many historians as ethnic cleansing of holocaust proportions.

As European Americans justified their violent conquest of
Western North America, the Native American who fought
desperately against the American military and the civilian
population for his land, people, religion, and, yes, freedom,
was labeled a "savage". Rebellious "Indians" were viewed as
less-than-human, and not worthy of the rights shared by the rest
of mankind. Said American General Philip Sheridan, "The only
good Indians I ever saw were dead."

A glance at a world history book tells us that our 20th century
Western Civilization carved up Islamic lands into political
entities that suited our "strategic" purposes. Since that time,
by supporting tyrants, "shahs", kings, and anyone else who would
do our bidding, including Saddam Hussein when it was convenient,
the West has, by these proxies, purposely oppressed the human
rights of Muslims in the Middle East.

In fact, in its quest for a "stable" oil supply and new markets,
Western Civilization has consistently denied Middle Eastern
Muslims the rights and equalities shared by the rest of us in
the community of nations.

When a spark of these rights does happen to be ignited, as they
were in Lebanon and Palestine, with rudimentary free elections
that garnered many Western compliments and promises... As soon
as the Muslim people made their will known to be contrary to the
will of Western Civilization, they were labeled "terrorists" and
immediately crushed and denied these rights once again.

In reality, the Muslims who fight us, including Osama bin Laden
and his Al-Qaeda, freedom fighters in the truest sense of the
word, comparable to our own founders, who, after all, also
oppressed women - even held slaves - until they enlightened
themselves.

What the USA and its Western democratic counterparts actually
fight today are religiously devout men and women, righteous
ten-commandment-keeping people according to our own moral and
religious codes - from Osama bin Laden down to the last innocent
Palestinian killed simply for living in Gaza.

It is not, in the least, hyperbole to say that the
Fundamentalist Muslims fighting us today are sacrificing their
lives for their brothers and sisters; they are heroically
defending their homelands, their cultures, and their religion,
from the corruption, crime, and decadence intrinsic to Western
capitalism as we know it.

They are people just like you and I. They are fighting the
international tyranny of "We the People" who did not bother to
follow what our governments and corporations have done to
"third-world" nations in order to turn a profit. Those of us who
are supposed to run our government and corporations, but who, in
fact, were too lazy to care what government did on behalf of the
corporate mentality.

But that does not change the fundamental truth that Muslims are
defending their homelands, culture, and religion, using
strategies already employed and legitimized by Western
Civilization itself over Dresden, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Hanoi,
and many other "battlefields", where the homes and businesses of
innocent civilians were also considered military targets. It
does not change the fundamental truth that Muslims do not fear
death because, unlike most of "Western Civilization", they don't
just mouth the words, but really believe they are rightfully
fighting for God and the survival of their culture and religion.
It does not change the fact that Western Civilization's
continuing worldwide oppression of Muslims will result in the
collapse of democracy everywhere, because democracy is a system
based on government by the people, not the wealthy elite... A
system, in the USA at least, founded on the fundamental truth of
the equality of all before God.

History is clear: No oppressor who has attempted, by force of
arms, to implement ideological change among a populace has ever
succeeded. By claiming to believe this war is righteous and
winnable, our government and the governments of Western
Civilization that support it must ignore history and the very
world around us. They must twist history to support their own
version of "fighting terror", and constantly invent dangers
which must be foisted upon their people in order that they can
maintain power. In so doing, they have sold the souls of their
peoples to the arms industry, to the creators and armorers of
the next holocaust.

Is such a "civilization" of any real value to mankind, a
civilization based on force of arms seemingly doomed to repeat
the errors of its own history? If we are democracies, surely the
solution to war is up to us - the people.

Today there is only one way to save our planet from never-ending
war and oppression. We must withdraw all Western military and
corporate interests from the Middle East. We must encourage
democracy there through open, peaceful, positive methods - the
types of methods that eventually brought down even the Soviet
Union.

The Qur'an, the single authority for all sects of Islam,
requires Muslims to accept peace - if a peace is offered that
will stop the oppression and the corruption that has obligated
Muslims to fight in the first place.

Continuing our present course of war only insures that more
Muslims will answer the Qur'an's call for self-defense of the
Islamic religion. On the other hand, reversing our course,
seeking peace, and positively supporting Middle Eastern Muslim
peoples as they seek democracy and self-empowerment through
self-determination, will remove all motivation for Muslim
resistance.

The West must stop confusing "truth", "liberty", "God", and
"democracy" with the brand of secular capitalism that has served
it so well. The secular capitalism that drives Western economies
is not compatible with the religion of Islam. We in the West
must learn to live with this fact, and allow Muslims to develop
their own democratic systems and economies. In the West, secular
capitalism must re-invent itself under a new paradigm. Unlimited
growth, limitless resources, and unrestricted market hegemony
are obsolete in today's world. Secular capitalism must evolve or
face extinction.

The Muslims who fight us are not criminals. They are not evil.
They are not cowards. They are not "fascists".

To bring peace to our globe, all we in the West have to do is
stand strong together for what we have always claimed to stand
for: The ideal that all people are created equal, with God-given
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

We cannot fight our own noble impulses for defending house and
home, which, with our eyes open, we can all see reflected in the
freedom fighters of Islam today.

We must stop fighting this war, stop endlessly piling war-torn
bodies upon the bodies of the nearly 3,000 Americans who
perished on September 11th, 2001. We must begin making their
deaths meaningful for our planet, we must honor their sacrifice
as of the God of Peace, and not of the god of war.

Unlike the Native Americans of the 19th century - many of whom
were tribal and warred among themselves, unable to unite to
fight their common foe - the Muslims of the Middle East share a
powerful commonality: The Qur'an and the religion of Islam.

To have peace we must obliterate our own ignorance of the
cultures, traditions, scriptures, and religions of our fellow
human beings - with whom we share our planet.

United in peace humanity might stand, but divided by war we will
certainly fall.

"If I am to
die politically because of my stance on this bill, it is better to die
on my feet than to live on my knees," Government Backbencher Russell
Broadbent during debate on the governments Asylum seeker bill.

SMH August 9, 2006 - 5:26PM

Liberal backbencher Petro Georgiou has described Government laws
that would send all asylum seekers arriving in Australia by
boat offshore as the most "profoundly disturbing" legislation he
has ever encountered in Parliament.

The White House is seeking legislation that would allow people not
affiliated with terrorism to be prosecuted in military commissions --
with far fewer rights than afforded civilians.

WASHINGTON - A draft Bush administration plan for special military
courts seeks to expand the reach and authority of such ''commissions''
to include trials, for the first time, of people who are not al Qaeda
members or the Taliban and are not directly involved in acts of
international terrorism, according to officials familiar with the
proposal plan.

The plan, which would replace a military trial system ruled illegal by
the Supreme Court in June, also allows the secretary of defense to add
crimes at will to those under the military court's jurisdiction. The
two provisions would be likely to put more individuals than previously
expected before military juries, officials and independent experts said.

The draft proposed legislation, set to be discussed at two Senate
hearings today, is controversial inside and outside the administration
because defendants would be denied many protections guaranteed by the
civilian and traditional military criminal justice systems.

Under the proposed procedures, defendants would lack rights to confront
accusers, exclude hearsay accusations, or bar evidence obtained through
rough or coercive interrogations. They would not be guaranteed a public
or speedy trial and would lack the right to choose their military
counsel, who in turn would not be guaranteed equal access to evidence
held by prosecutors.

Detainees also would not be guaranteed the right to be present at their
own trials, if their absence is deemed necessary to protect national
security or individuals.

An early draft of the new law prepared by civilian political appointees
and leaked to the media last week has been modified in response to
criticism from uniformed military lawyers. But the provisions allowing
a future expansion of the courts to cover new crimes and more prisoners
were retained, according to government officials who are familiar with
the deliberations.

These haven't been
good days for Bush and his pack of lap dogs. It certainly has not been
good for his stated goal of spreading democracy through the Middle
East. The main problem here is that the man is either totally oblivious
to the fact that his decisions and his actions have caused the deaths
of hundreds of thousands of people in the region, from Iraq to
Afghanistan to Lebanon and all areas in between, or he really believes
that all of these people deserve to die.

Bush continues to insist that Israel's battle with Hezbullah is part of
a wider struggle against terrorism. He blindly refuses to lay blame
equally on both sides, even as he professes to mourn the loss of
"innocent life" both in Israel and Lebanon. Bush continues to insist
that "Israel is exercising its right to defend itself," a right he
continues to deny the Iraqi people, the people of Lebanon, and the
Palestinians who have been the target of systematic genocide for nearly
60 years.

While the majority of the civilized world loudly condemns the excessive
force exercised by Israel, Bush continues to play God with peoples
lives, not only in the Middle East, but also in his own country where
he has seized upon the right to ignore domestic law with as much
impunity as he does International laws. And in the process he is
dragging Australia and Her people deeper and deeper into the same
quagmire of fear and hate and death, bringing the collective hatred of
a larger and larger alliance of enemies down upon all of our heads.

"Not In Our Name" was the cry of those who opposed the invasion of
Iraq. "Not In Our Name" will you kill innocent children and women and
elderly peoples who had nothing to do with any attacks on any citizens
of the countries who became part of the "coalition of the willing". But
it seems that Bush and Chaney and Rumsfeld and their poodle partners
Blair and Howard have succeeded in muting those voices by gagging the
opposition and the formerly objective media while letting loose the
likes of Coulter and Limbaugh and Drudge and Murdock to plaster the print and
electronic media with lies and distortions and cover ups and massive
amounts of distractions such as "when will Howard resign", the price of
bananas, which actor is cheating on their spouse or what some actor
said while in being arrested for driving drunk.

Once again the term "anti-Semitism" is being bantered about in an
attempt to silence the voices crying out for the killing to stop. Once
again the guilt of one generation is being used to silence another and
to justify the crimes committed by the descendants of one group of
those who died in the Holocaust.

Could it be that Bush revels in the God-like powers he has, in the life
and death decisions he makes, just as he did when he was governor of
Texas and presided over the record number of executions that occurred
in Texas under his watch?

Bush and those who serve him are true serial killers, mass murderers no
different from the mass killers who preceded them. They stand beside
Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussain and Melosavitch.

Bush has either deliberately set out to bring about another world war,
or he has seriously miscalculated in his stance in Iraq and on the
Israel-Hezbullah violence. By allowing Israeli violence against
Lebanese citizens to continue unabated, the tide of world opinion
against both Israel and the United States has swelled and has fanned
support across the Arab world for Hezbullah.

By the United States continued slaughter of the people of Iraq, and
it's continued threats against Iran, and it's unwavering support and continued arming of Israel it has helped to forge alliances
between many countries who have, until now, had little to do with each
other. With each innocent life lost Hezbullah and other organizations
of it's type gain more and more recruits, each dedicated to the
destruction of Israel, the United States and their allies.

Already the violence has begun to overflow into our own region, even
into our own country as the attacks on Synagogues and Mosques become
more and more frequent. Our country is becoming more and more polarized
as such issues the right of people to hold dual citizenship and the
rights of those who do to be rescued from a war zone or their right to
fight for their other country dominate talk back radio and blogs in all
major newspapers and many smaller local ones. The wars that are
occurring thousands of kilometres from our shores are tearing our own
people apart, causing friends and neighbours to turn on each other. How
long before the bombs begin to explode in our own back yards?

The madness must come to an end, one way or the other. Either the
killing has to stop or the nuclear weapons must be deployed and life as
we know it must end. There is no longer any middle ground left.

WASHINGTON Steven Green, the former U.S. soldier accused of raping and
murdering an Iraqi girl and members of her family compared killing
people in Iraq to "squashing an ant," in an interview with a reporter
about a month before the attack.

Writing in Sunday's Washington Post, Andrew Tilghman, a former
correspondent for the military paper Stars and Stripes, said he
interviewed Green several times in February south of Baghdad.

"I came over here because I wanted to kill people," he quoted Green as
saying. "The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be.
I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing
experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.'

"I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic
checkpoint and it was like nothing," Green was quoted as saying. "Over
here, killing people is like squashing an ant.

Green is under arrest in Kentucky for the March 12 murders of the Iraqi
girl and three of her relatives. He was honorably discharged from the
military for a "personality disorder," has pleaded not guilty.

Tilghman said Green saw the war in Iraq as pointless. "I just want to go home alive," he quoted the soldier.

To: Australian Prime Minister John Howard and Members of Australian Parliament

We, the undersigned Citizens and Residents of Australia and the World,
stand together to condemn the atrocities being committed by the Israeli
military against the peoples of Lebanon, and call on Prime Minister
John Howard and his Government to stand together with us and call for
an immediate cease fire by BOTH sides of this conflict.

The brutal bombing and invasion of Lebanon is an act of
Israeli state terrorism, Israel’s indiscriminate bombing if civilian
targets in Lebanon is a serious violation of Human Rights, and
constitutes another terrifying example of the heightened reliance on
military force by both Israel and the United States in their ongoing
struggle for hegemony in the Middle East.

Hundreds of civilians have been killed in Lebanon including
many children, and scores are missing. The number of refugees is
estimated at more than half a million and rising. The attacks on
Lebanon’s infrastructure – power stations, factories, bridges, and
ports – will take decades to rebuild. The people of Lebanon are already
weary from reconstructing their country after years of civil war and
the last ruinous Israeli invasion in 1982. Israel has proven that it
has no concern for the lives of the innocent by its attack on UN
outposts, Red Cross convoys and fleeing civilians.

There is no military solution to the current crisis. War
and occupation threaten all life in the region and around the world—and
will never bring security to anyone. We call for an immediate
cease-fire against Lebanon.

Given the vacuum of political leadership from the
governments of the world in the face of U.S. and Israeli intransigence,
we feel it is incumbent on ordinary citizens to organize and support
peaceful means for bringing economic and political pressure on Israel
to end its assault on Lebanon and also on the Palestinian territories.
It is urgent that individuals and non-governmental groups apply such
means until Israel fully complies with international law and respects
the fundamental human rights of all people.

While we unequivocally condemn the killing of civilians in
Israel, it must be recognized that Israel's destructive and
expansionist policies are primarily to blame for the perpetual "Middle
East crisis.” To call Israeli atrocities in Gaza and Lebanon simply a
“disproportionate response” helps justify Israeli war crimes by making
Israel the victim and obscuring both the short and long-term sources of
this catastrophic violence.

We call on Mr Howard to demand an immediate end to the
assault on civilians and the destruction of Lebanon, as we realize that
by his silence in this matter he makes each and every Australian
complicit in the deaths of innocents and the destruction of a country.

It seems
that Aussie Tony is facing a full scale rebellion by his own front
bench over the crisis in Lebanon. Jack Straw, Tony's former
Foreign Secretary and now Leader of the Commons, has issued a statement
in which he said that while he grieved for innocent Israelis killed by
Hezbulla rockets, he also mourned the "10
times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by
Israeli fire", and warned that Israel's over zealous actions "risked
destabilizing the whole of Lebanon".

Prior to Blair's meeting with Bush over the crisis, one minister after
another called on Blair to distance himself from Bush's stand on
Israel, and called on him to publicly criticize Israel for scale of
death and destruction in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. According to one
Minister, not one of Aussie Tony's front benchers offered him any
support on this issue.
Foreign Minister Kim Howels issued a statement saying that is was "very
difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel",
going on to state, "One of the many serious worries I have is that a
continuation
of such tactics by Israel could destabilise the already fragile
Lebanese nation."

"There is
something fundamentally wrong with a war where there are more dead
children than armed men. That has to stop. There has been too much
suffering in Lebanon, in northern Israel and in Gaza -- which is
becoming the forgotten conflict in the Middle East."

From correspondents in United Nations

July 29, 2006

The UN has called for a 72-hour truce in the Middle East

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland has made an urgent appeal for a
72-hour truce between Israel and Hezbollah to allow casualties to be
removed and food and medicine to be sent into the war zone.

Mr Egeland said he had proposed the truce to the UN Security Council
overnight and would approach Israel and the Lebanese group, Hezbollah,
to agree to the humanitarian cessation of hostilities.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has made repeated calls for a permanent
cessation of hostilities and moves toward a full ceasefire between
Israel and Hezbollah. This has so far been rejected.

Mr Egeland said: "I will again go back to the parties, to the Israelis,
to the Lebanese, and ask for at least a 72 hour start of this cessation
of hostilities so that we can evacuate the wounded, evacuate children,
the elderly, the disabled from the crossfire in southern Lebanon."

He said hospitals and clinics would be resupplied and "emergency
medical assistance" would be given to the wounded and food delivered to
the tens of thousands of displaced.

Mr Egeland has just returned from a mission to Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The conflict, which erupted July 12, has left more than 600 dead in
Lebanon alone, according to Mr Egeland, and hundreds of thousands have
fled their homes in south Lebanon.

Mr Egeland said that at least one third of the casualties were children
and that the overall toll would rise because many bodies were buried
under rubble in isolated villages.

"The truce would be a period in which we can get generalised access to
the people and that those who want to escape can escape in safety," Mr
Egeland said, estimating that many thousands of people still wanted to
get out of the conflict zone.

Mr Egeland said he also wanted to set up a communications link to the
isolated villages "where we have basically lost contact due to the
fighting and due to the destruction of roads and bridges."

The UN coordinator said the humanitarian crisis in the region was
"dramatic" though relief efforts are being stepped up despite some
reports of humanitarian convoys being attacked.

"There is something fundamentally wrong with a war where there are more
dead children than armed men. That has to stop. There has been too much
suffering in Lebanon, in northern Israel and in Gaza -- which is
becoming the forgotten conflict in the Middle East."

At least 145 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have died since
Israel launched a massive offensive in late June to recover a soldier
captured by Gaza militants and halt rocket fire from the coastal strip.

Mr Egeland said UN agencies and other groups had the capability to send
20,000 tonnes of supplies into Lebanon over the next month but that
there must be a halt to the fighting.

He said the United Nations had raised $US15 million ($19.5 million) of
the $US150 million ($10.5 million) it needs for operations in Lebanon.
He added that he had no plans to return to the region straight away.

From this hill village in the south of the country, I am watching the
clouds of brown and black smoke rising from its latest disaster in the
Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil: up to 13 Israeli soldiers dead, and others
surrounded, after a devastating ambush by Hizbollah guerrillas in what
was supposed to be a successful Israeli military advance against a
“terrorist centre”.

To my left smoke rises too, over the town of Khiam, where a smashed
United Nations outpost remains the only memorial to the four UN
soldiers - most of them decapitated by an American-made missile on
Tuesday - killed by the Israeli air force.

Indian soldiers of the UN army in southern Lebanon, visibly moved by
the horror of bringing their Canadian, Fijian, Chinese and Austrian
comrades back in at least 20 pieces from the clearly marked UN post
next to Khiam prison, left their remains at Marjayoun hospital
yesterday.

In past years, I have spent hours with their comrades in this UN
position, which is clearly marked in white and blue paint, with the
UN’s pale blue flag opposite the Israeli frontier. Their duty was to
report on all they saw: the ruthless Hizbollah missile fire out of
Khiam and the brutal Israeli response against the civilians of Lebanon.

Is this why they had to die, after being targeted by the Israelis for
eight hours, their officers pleading to the Israeli Defence Forces that
they cease fire? An American-made Israeli helicopter saw to that.

Meanwhile, Iraq’s Prime Minister displays a modicum of independence on
Israel’s war in Lebanon and he’s labelled an “anti-Semite” by the
Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean (heading a party on the road to
irrelevance). “We don’t need to spend $200 and $300 and $500 billion
bringing democracy to Iraq to turn it over to people who believe that
Israel doesn’t have a right to defend itself and who refuse to condemn
Hezbollah”, he said.

18th
century: The German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn initiates a
Jewish secularism, which focused on Jewish national identity.

1862: The German Jew Moses Hess publishes the book Rome and Jerusalem
where he called for a return of Jews to Palestine. He also said that
Jews would never succeed by assimilating into European societies.

1881: Pogroms of Russia result in heavy emigration to USA. Some few
Jews even emigrate to Palestine, as they are motivated by religious
ideas of Palestine as Jewish homeland.

Russian Military Analysts are reporting today that the United States
Military Leaders have issued an order to their propaganda media outlets
to immediately cease reporting on American Troop Movements, and which
these reports state are ‘massive’.

This latest American move is in apparent response to the expansion of
the present Middle East war, and which many are calling World War III,
with Syria having issued an ‘ultimatum’ to the United States and Israel
to an immediate halt to the fighting and an Israeli withdrawal from
Lebanon, and which neither action the Americans or Israelis are likely
to heed.

In response to both American and Israeli failing to heed this ultimatum
"Syrian President Bashar Assad has placed the military on alert and
ordered Syrian infantry commandos, armored units and anti-aircraft
batteries to launch preparations for an Israeli strike" , and as
reported by the Middle Eastern Online News Service today.

International talks aimed at averting a much wider war have also failed
in Rome today as President Putin has likewise ordered Russia’s Military
to its highest alert status in 5 years as many Kremlin Analysts predict
that the Untied States and Israel are indeed intent upon the remaking
of the entire Middle East through their combined war efforts.

Iranian Military Forces are likewise on their highest alert status as
attacks upon them are also expected and to which the American
President, fearing an expected attack upon US Forces operating in
Shiite controlled areas of Iraq, has ordered them to the Sunni
controlled areas around Baghdad, and which is currently embroiled in
its worst violence since the outset of this war.

In an attempt by the United States to keep Russian Military forces from
entering a larger Middle East War, the American backed puppet regime in
Georgia has launched a sudden attack upon Abkhazia putting their US
Backed Forces in direct conflict with Russian Peacekeepers.

The United States has likewise sought to neutralize Egyptian Military
Forces from entering this conflict by allowing their puppet regime in
Ethiopia to invade Somali in an attempt to destabilize the entire Horn
of Africa region, and which has apparently succeeded in Egypt’s
President-For-Life Mubarak, and another puppet regime supported by the
US, announcing today his nations intent not to become involved in this
present conflict.

As the World today drifts ever closer towards the abyss of Total War,
the American people themselves are not being allowed to know of these
serious escalation maneuvers by their Military Leaders. But upon this
wider war being started, and the shutting off to the American people of
oil from the Middle East, Venezuela and Russia they will soon know the
utter folly of this most dangerous path they have allowed themselves to
be led upon.

(New York, July 23, 2006) – Torture and other abuses against detainees in
U.S. custody in Iraq were authorized and routine, even after the 2004 Abu
Ghraib scandal, according to new accounts from soldiers in a Human
Rights Watch report released today. The new report, containing first-hand
accounts by U.S. military personnel interviewed by Human Rights Watch,
details detainee abuses at an off-limits facility at Baghdad airport and at
other detention centers throughout Iraq.

Despite mounting calls from world leaders for a ceasefire, the Israel
Army is adamant that it is not about to stop it's pounding of Lebanon
for at least another week, and is obviously planning a ground assault. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said the offensive must continue until Hezbollah is pushed away from the border.

Encouraged by the support is is receiving from Washington, the army is
treating southern Lebanon as it's own private shooting gallery, hitting
cars and buses loaded with refugees heading for relative safety in Tyre
with rockets.

As Condi sets out for the Middle East, aids have made it clear that
calling for a ceasefire in not on her agenda, repeating the insistence
that any ceasefire would have to be preceded by the disarming of the
"Iranian backed Hezbullah". On Friday, Rice rejected international
calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying the world is witnessing "the
birth pangs of a new Middle East".
"A sustainable ceasefire........is sustainable only if we get to the root problem, which is Hezbullah, a terrorist organisation," according to Josh Bolten, President George W Bush's chief of staff.

Meanwhile, the UN's emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, accused
Israel of gross violation international humanitarian law. As he toured
the devastated Haret Hreik distict of Lebanon, which has endured 11
days of bombardment, he described the scene as "horrific", going on to
say, "I did not know it was block after block of houses."
Senior diplomats from Britain, Germany and France arrived in Israel to
urge it towards a ceasefire or at least restraint, prompting Lt Gen Dan
Halutz, Israel's chief of staff to state, "The foreign ministers do not
determine our time limit. The Israeli government does that."

Washington, which supports Israel's declared aim of forcing the
implementation of UN resolution 1559, brushed aside a Syrian offer of
direct talks on the crisis, with senior US "Hawk" John Bolton stating, "Syria does not need dialogue to know what to do; they need to lean on Hezbullah."

With tens of thousands of foreign nationals still trying to get out,
Israel continues to blast all exits out of the country. The death toll
in Lebanon is now well over 380, including three refugees who died when
Israeli warplanes attacked their minibus, and Lebanese photographer
Layal Nejib, 23, who was killed when a missile hit near her taxi in
southern Lebanon.

The continued attacks by Israel have displaced at least 700,000 people
in Lebanon. The Lebanese town of Sidon is packed with about 35,000
refugees, with more pouring in by the hour. Essential supplies such as
food, fuel and even medicines are in seriously short supply. Mayor
Abdul-Rahman al-Bizri told the AP, "There are no supplies reaching us,
not from other nations, nor from the Lebanese government".

POPE Benedict XVI led an international day of prayers for peace in the
Middle East yesterday, calling on the international community "to look
for ways to start negotiations" between the warring parties.